Protecting Our Communities

Tag Archives: loughborough university

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to write a regular blog about policing in Charnwood and here is my first one.

As I write we are investigating a series of crimes where a number of vehicles were damaged across the city and county. We received more than 60 reports of vehicles having their tyres slashed and rear windows smashed overnight on Sunday 1 January and Monday 2 January.

Reports have been received from a number of areas including Glenfield, Thurmaston, East Goscote, Rearsby, Frisby on the Wreake, Saxelby, Waltham on the Wolds.

Nothing was stolen during the incidents and at this stage we’re keeping an open mind as to whether all the reports are linked. We have undertaken extensive enquiries including house to house visits and a check for CCTV. We are taking these incidents very seriously and we have increased patrols in the areas affected by the incidents.

A number of men have been arrested in connection with this series of offences and they are currently on bail whilst we complete some further enquiries.

Tackling anti-social behaviour in Charnwood.
Just prior to Christmas, Charnwood Borough Council were successful in obtaining injunctions against six people who had been causing anti-social behaviour in Loughborough.

This followed a series of incidents in and around Loughborough town centre and included drug taking, begging, and using stairwells of a car park as a toilet.

Injunctions were granted against six people: Brett Bott (also known as Brett Tooby), Jamie Orchard, Adam Hill, Terry Spencer, David Fisher and Lisa Hutchinson. All are of no fixed abode.

As well as being banned from Beehive Lane car park, the injunctions forbid them from engaging in any drug-related activity, begging, littering and sleeping in public areas in Loughborough town centre; Queen’s Park; Steeple Row, Loughborough, and Beehive Lane car park. The injunctions last for two years and breaching the conditions means they could be arrested.

This situation was very much a last resort and came about after various agencies have tried to engage with the people concerned and offer support which was not taken advantage of.

We will continue to work hard with Charnwood Borough Council and our other partners to tackle anti-social behaviour in Charnwood.

Operation Lexical
Operation Lexical is our on-going crime and anti-social behaviour which is running in Charnwood and in particular Loughborough. In the run up to Christmas we focussed on house burglary and in partnership with Charnwood Borough Council and Loughborough University, we targeted insecure doors and windows. In previous years we have had a problem with house burglaries where properties have been left insecure. I am delighted to say that when we carried out our patrols the overwhelming majority of houses we visited were secure with very few doors and windows left open. Hopefully this will translate into lower numbers burglaries that we have reported to us. I should have more information about that in my next blog.

In the mean-time our key crime prevention message in relation to burglary is:

lock all windows and doors

leave a light on or use a light timer to give the appearance your home is occupied

Kayleigh’s love story
Many of you will be familiar with the tragic story of Kayleigh Haywood a teenage girl from Measham who was raped and murdered in 2015 after being groomed online. Leicestershire Police has made a hard hitting film about Kayleigh. It was launched earlier this year and has been shown to over 35,000 school children in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

The full film has now been made available and has been viewed an astonishing 6 million times!

The film is part of our CEASE campaign, the Commitment to Eradicate Abuse and Sexual Exploitation of children and young people. Since we launched this campaign in February last year over 21,000 people have signed a pledge to look out for the signs that a child or young person may be in danger of abuse and exploitation. Please visit this link to sign our online pledge.

Our performance in terms of crime is closely monitored and is always of interest to local people. Our recording year starts in April, much like the tax year, and we examine crime trends on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. We also use data from previous years which we combine to identify emerging trends and take proactive as well as reactive action, to not only drive crime down but also identify and deal with offenders.

Since the start of April we have seen a 4.2% decrease in the total amount of crime we have had reported to us when compared to 2012-13. This amounts to 40 or so less reports. Whilst it is still very early to break out the champagne, we will continue to work hard and keep the numbers going in the right direction.

We have seen an increase in thefts from gardens, sheds and allotments of 21% which is 12 more offences. A number of the offences reported to us relate to where property has been left insecure.

Fitting a good quality lock to your garage or shed and not leaving tools out will help prevent you becoming a victim of crime.

As I was reviewing the crime figures, I noticed that theft of cycles had reduced by 15% with 9 fewer victims. Together with the Crime Safety Partnership we have undertaken a great deal of work in this area, with bike hub events, bike marking, and offering for sale good quality D-locks. Perhaps you have seen the ‘yellow’ bike in Loughborough Town centre. Hopefully the reduction in thefts is a sign that the hard work is starting to pay off.

Look out for the yellow bikes in Loughborough

Operation Umbel

Operation Umbel is our ongoing operation designed to target and reduce anti-social behaviour in and around Loughborough Town centre. We work closely with Charnwood Borough Council and Loughborough University with a range of activities.

We recently ran a ‘mock bar’ event at Loughborough Students Union. This included a quiz on the units of alcohol in popular drinks. We linked this to a reaction machine kindly provided by Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service. Each participant was allowed two attempts on the reaction machine. On the second attempt they were given ‘beer goggles’ to wear which mimic the effects of alcohol consumption, in particular reduced peripheral vision and hand-eye coordination.

Without beer goggles

With beer goggles

If you get the chance to try the ‘beer goggle’ experience please do so, and you will get a better understanding of why you should not drink and drive.

Safer Neighbourhood Teams

Through this period of austerity, Leicestershire Police have undergone a massive amount of change during the course of which we have seen a number of our police stations sold. Despite that we still remain committed to local policing and during my time here I will work hard to ensure that we have a local policing presence across Loughborough, Shepshed and Hathern.

With that in mind I am going to use this update to highlight our local police teams.

The Shepshed and Loughborough West team, are still based in Shepshed in the Police and Fire Station on Charnwood Road.

Pc 1799 Phil Martindale is the Beacon Officer for the team and is ably supported by :

The team cover Shepshed and the west side of Loughborough and they hold regular engagement events.

The next one is on the 21st and 22nd July between 9am and 10pm each day in Hallcroft, Shepshed. This is an opportunity to meet the team and receive crime prevention advice, and have property post coded.